Since we took a small break last week from the Cookbook Casting Call, let me refresh your memory about the book we were looking at two weeks ago. Our cookbook that week was The New Basics Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins.

This is the follow up cookbook to their highly successful Silver Palate series. This was our proposed menu for that week:

Menu for 1/25 - 1/31: Week Three of the Cookbook Casting Call and Winter Pantry Plan

There were a few changes mid-week as my work schedule ramped up. Tuesday's Market Street Meat Loaf became the Not So Sloppy Joe

mostly because I only remembered to pull the ground pork out of the freezer and not the ground beef. I have to say, I was quite impressed with the taste of these and the use of ground pork. I'm a sucker for sloppy joes. I can't wait to try this recipe with ground turkey or chicken.

Another change was the Tuscan Chicken became an adaption Bobbie's Chicken

with a boneless chicken breast instead of a whole chicken.

Part of this change was after having the Tuscan Pork Chops earlier in the week, I wasn't ready for a return to the same flavors. A huge part of this change was getting home from the office after 7pm that evening and wanting something quick to make versus a bit more involved.

All in all, I would rate my week with the two ladies from the Silver Palate as a B.

A few dishes were solid A's: the aforementioned Bobbie's Chicken and Not So Sloppy Joe along with the really fantastic Blueberry, Raspberry, and Strawberry Cobbler.

But I found a lot of the recipes I tried and looked at to be pretty single note with a heavy emphasis on the use of rosemary, balsamic vinegar, and thyme and of Tuscan this and that. Maybe that is because the book is a snapshot of it's time, the late 80's and early 90's, when American cooks were discovering there was more to Italy than pasta and sauce and there were other vinegars besides white and cider. I don't know but I know that I would like a bit more variety when it comes to flavors than these and that was the main reason I gave the book a B.

I did pretty good that week on the Winter Pantry Plan; spending a little more than I would have liked to get some fresh herbs and some frozen raspberries and strawberries for the cobbler (I thought I had some in the freezer but found I had used them already.) My grocery total for that week was $23.61.

Which brings the grand total so far since I started both the Cookbook Casting Call and the Winter Pantry Plan to $56.25 spent on groceries since January 11, 2009. That means, on average, I'm spending about $14.00 a week on groceries. A bit higher than the Summer Pantry Plan average but I'm not upset seeing how I'm not able to take advantage of the summer garden. Now, on to this week's cookbook!

Layer the bottom of the prepared baking pan with the onions. Place the seasoned chicken breasts on top of the onions. Squeeze one wedge of lemon on top of each chicken breast. Add chicken stock to pan and cover pan with foil.

Bake in oven for 20 minutes. Remove foil and let bake for another 5 minutes or until chicken breast is done.